The Happy City: Charles MontgomerySat, Nov 2, 8:30 pmCharles Montgomery, former BMW Guggenheim Lab team member and author of Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design (2013), launches his book and presents fun experiments in trust and play, exploring the striking relationship between the design of our minds and the design of our cities. Includes a cash bar reception.

Rainwater Harvesting: Neville MarsSun, Dec 1, 6:30 pmNeville Mars, architect, founder of Dynamic City Foundation, and former BMW Guggenheim Lab team member, discusses his interest in design solutions for conserving water and how this interest led to the creation of the Water Bench, an urban bench that collects rainwater.

Urban Film Series: Cinematic SitesFris, Oct 11–Jan 3 (except Nov 29), 3 pmSelected by Paul Dallas, organizer of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s 2011 film program in New York, this series explores the relationship between the urban environment and cinematic story telling.

Tearing Off and Beginning AgainTues, Oct 22, 6:30 pmRobert Motherwell often described his artistic work in editorial terms, referring to changes as acts of revisions. In this lecture, art historian Catherine Craft, Adjunct Assistant Curator for Research and Exhibitions at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, explores the relationship between artistic and editorial processes through Motherwell’s treatment of paper as a result of his involvement with collage and his engagement with Dada. An exhibition viewing and a reception follow.

Made of Paper: Motherwell’s Materials in the 1940sTues, Dec 3, 6:30 pmIn this gallery program, Guggenheim conservator Jeffery Warda shares his research on Robert Motherwell’s early collages and discusses how the artist chose specific materials to achieve different results. A cash bar reception follows.

Eye to Eye: Artist-Led ToursThis popular series of artist-led exhibition tours returns for the Christopher Wool retrospective, on view through January 22, 2014. Three contemporary practitioners share perspectives on the creative process and discuss the works on view. A cash bar reception follows each tour.

PERFORMANCENation TimeWed, Nov 20, 7 pmCurated by John Corbett and Christopher WoolOn the occasion of the exhibition, an international cast including writer Richard Hell, musician and composer Arto Lindsay, Scandinavian free jazz band The Thing, and legendary multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee will come together for an evening of art and performance.

SYMPOSIUMPTG: Abstraction Since 1980Fri, Jan 17, 2 pmIn a series of short talks and discussions, international scholars, curators, and artists address questions of painting and abstraction from the 1980s to the present. Presentations will be given by Suzanne Hudson (University of Southern California, Los Angeles), Mark Godfrey (Tate Modern, London), and Katy Siegel (CUNY Hunter College, New York). Included among the featured artists in the concluding panel discussion are Richard Prince, R. H. Quaytman, and Christopher Wool. Organized by Katherine Brinson, Associate Curator, Guggenheim Museum, and Suzanne Hudson, Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, University of Southern California. An exhibition viewing follows.

The Elaine Terner Cooper Education Fund: Conversations with Contemporary ArtistsJoana Hadjithomas and Khalil JoreigeMon, Dec 2, 6:30 pmFilmmakers and artists, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige demonstrate the complexities of documenting history through the exploration of latency and power in absent or delayed images. An exhibition viewing and a reception follow. Additional support for The Elaine Terner Cooper Education Fund: Conversations with Contemporary Artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige is provided through the generosity of the Middle Eastern Circle, with special thanks to Dr. Lamees Hamdan.

$12, $8 members, free for students with RSVP. For tickets and more information, visit guggenheim.org/cca.

TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL HILLA REBAY LECTURELocal Color circa 1971: Darby EnglishTues, Jan 28, 6:30 pmDarby English, Starr Director of Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, considers ideas about art and culture that animated New York’s art world around 1971. While newer forms of radical practice, such as Conceptual art and Land art, were gaining ground at that time, late modernist painting and sculpture exhibited unexpected new capacities, briefly restoring abstraction’s historical alliance with urgent, and otherwise inexpressible, social and political quandaries. Can formalism serve as activism? Let’s see.

The Annual Hilla Rebay Lecture examines significant issues in the theory, criticism, and history of art and is made possible through the generosity of The Hilla von Rebay Foundation.